I just finished playing EA Pan in Mists of Time (the game was CBM 1.5, so gem-gens were still in though), and thought I'd share some of my experiences.
First off, I made heavy use of the reverse communion, as mentioned by Jarkko in page 3 of his guide -
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=43819 - and it was supremely effective. And that was without ever using Hell Power (the only time I
intended to try it was in an epic attempt to storm a castle, and I had my Blood Slaves and a ton of Maenads nuked in the first round by RoSes).
All my main armies had at least 5 Pans and several Astral mages (mostly Lizard Shaman - yeah, getting those guys was key). The top 4 Pans would cast Sabbath Slave, some big Nature BE or BF, and then whatever. The last Pan (with a Blood booster if necessary) would cast Sabbath Master, Reinvigoration (and thus dramatically lower the slave-Pans' fatigue right after casting their big spells), Earth Power, Strength of Gaia, maybe another Reinvigoration or Elemental Fortitude or whatever, and Fire. And of course the last Astral mage would cast Communion Master, Power of the Spheres, whatever other buffs seemed useful (Personal Luck, Body Ethereal, etc.), and Fire.
Once the game got into the later stages, I would have at least Mass Regeneration, Relief, Gaia's Blessing, and Rush of Strength up by the second round of every major battle. To buy time, I'd also have a Troll King ready to cast Army of Lead the first round (OK, easier to do when you have many Blood Stones to buy them and boost them with, to be sure, but still doable for at least your most important army in 1.6).
Then your E2 Pans (now at least E5 with Earth Boots, E6 with Stones) are throwing down Weapons of Sharpness from round 3 on, and your Naked Ladies are now downright scary. To go with the Charm spam and whatever else you want to throw out.
And since I was fielding a lot of low encumbrance units, and had several Lamia Queens (and other assorted units) with Water, I'd often throw down things like Quagmire, Foul Vapors, Grip of Winter, etc., figuring it would all hurt the enemy a whole lot more than my own light troops, all of whom were protected at least to some degree by Pangaea's buffs. Very effective when used against the right opponent.
I also empowered a Lizard Shaman in Earth (OK, harder to do without Blood Stones, I know). One thing I had him do was forge Slave Matrices, which I passed out to the Troll Kings, Lamia Queens, Faery Queens, and such. I suppose that might be a useful strategy for any Communion/Sabbath power. But Pangaea can give slaves in such a reverse communion such an amazing number of useful buffs, it really kicks *** if you can do it, even if they're only getting a +1 magic level boost from PoS, as they also get reinvigoration from Earth Power, extra regeneration from Strength of Gaia, etc., etc.. Easier to get done in 1.5, but perhaps still doable in 1.6, and well worth it if it can be done.
But since Baalz made
this guide to talk about an alternate strategy for Pangaea (going for quality over quantity), I will say that I agree with him to a certain extent, even though I had plenty of success with my hordes of chaff backed up by nasty battle magic (I went the Turmoil-3, Maenad Factory route).
I mean, I was swimming in chaff. Too much to shake a stick at. And although I also used Transformation on a huge scale (though I did lose a couple of Pans that way, and some new units were useless for anything other than lab work, my research was superb, some Foul-Spawn transforms could still wield hammers [after getting un-Feebleminded by GoH], and most could Blood Hunt quite safely), gold was still often short. And often a lot of that fodder just sat in forts for lack of a way to deploy them effectively.
Truly, I
had to make do with chaff and summoned units (in fact, I never recruited a non-commander from quite early on in the game), as I needed all my gold for other stuff, and couldn't afford to buy any of Pangaea's line-troops. Luckily, I had plenty of trolls (tried to kill those guys off ASAP), drakes, wolves (once I captured the Soulstone, at least), thousands of Maenads (of course), and Foul Spawn.
Foul Spawn.
That should be Pangaea's go-to free fodder, once you've got enough research. Easy to afford, once Blood Hunting gets going (so perhaps transition from recruited units to Spawn once you're able to Transform your Pans?). Generally tougher, occasionally much tougher, than Maenads, and very nasty once buffed by all that Pangaea can drop on them! Just a few Pans can summon all the meat you need with Improved Cross Breeding cast each turn, at the cost of minimal Blood Slaves. Even regular Cross Breeding might be worth it, if you've got a way to buff the fodder. And of course the rare special units can be quite outstanding.
My biggest problem with Pan in the Late Game was the lack of operational mobility. Without solid access to A or S (no Teleport or CT-ready mages), Pangaea just doesn't have that quick strike, attack anywhere, capability. But boy, they can really grind it out on the ground with anyone.
Re: A different take on EA Pangaea – CBM 1.6
Linear Mode
